Roofing element



June 7, 1927'. 1,631,604

T. ROBINSON ROOFING ELEMENT Filed NOV. 21. 1923 JL' WF 4a in. Qua? il 7 m; M;

% ATTORNEYS Patented June 7, 1927.

UNITED STATES,

, A 1,631,604 PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS ROBINSON, OF BABYLON, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO ANACONIDA SALES COM- PANY, A CORPORATION OI! DELAWARE.

ROOFING ELEMENT.

Application filed Novemberill, Serial No. 675,998.

This invention relates to roofing material and more specifically to a material which consists of a nonmetallic base provided with a protective metallic coating applied to the surface thereof.

Roofin material of the type above generally regerred to has many distinctive and advantageous features owing to the fact that by selecting a base of suitable material and applyin a thin coating of non-corrodible metal t ereover m a manner presently to p be described, the roofing, when laid in place in the usual way, has the appearance of ordinary metal 7 roofing but is considerably cheaper, is easier to lay. and does not trans-' mit heat so rapidly. Roofings formed of various compositions such as felt, asbestos, paper and the like, impregnated with bituminous or other similar compositions have been widely used as a substitute for the ordinary wooden shingles but such material is objectionable in some instances on account of its appearance and also such compositions frequently have a tendency to deteriorate when exposed to the weather and their edges may warp or-curl. This composition roofing, however, is relatively cheap and is laid rapidly and at a low expense.

Metallic roofing material consisting of 30 zinc or copper shingles, plates. and the like,

has been used to some extent and this metallic roofing is advantageous in that it has a longer life than the composition roofing above described. Also, the elements do not warp or curl, but the roofing is considerably more expensive and requires greater attention in its application to the roof than does the composition. It conducts heat rapidly. however, and the cost of installation is therefore increased by reason of the necessity of employing added layers of sheathing beneath it.

I have found, however, that a composite.

by the essential oils and resins present in the cork which are caused to'exude under the application of heat and pressure and the particles are thus bound together and may be molded into blanks of the desired shape and thickness. Such a cork base is nonhygroscopic, water-proof, a good heat insulator, and is also fire-resistant. It is light in weight and may be readily nailed or cut by sawing. The metal coating of which I refer to make use is finely divided copper, which is applied to the surface of the cork base either dry or suspended in a binding vehicle. When the metal is used dry it is blown or sprayed upon the surface of the cork which has been preliminarily treated with a suitable adhesive. For a binding vehicle in which the metal. particlesmay be suspended I prefer to make use of nitrated cellulose and the suspension may be blown or sprayed over the surface to be given the coating. A roofing element of this construction is satisfactory for-many purposes but if desired for any reason to increase the thickness of the metal then the finely divided particles may be used as a conducting coating over which a layer of copper may be electrodeposited. 1

Such roofing material as I have above described is capable/of use for many purposes and for commercial transportation it will be made in a number of standard forms, such asstrips, boards, single and multiple unit glizingles, Spanish and mission tiles, and the In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated two commercial forms of roofing element constructed in accordance with this invention, and in these drawings,

Fig. 1 is a face view of such an element, 95

Fig. 2 is an end view,

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 4 is a face view of a single shingle,

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary cross-sectional 100 view on a somewhat enlarged scale,

Fig. 6 is a face view of a portion of a roof ing element having two coatings of metal, and

Fig. 7 is a cross-sectional view on the line 105 77 of Fig. 6. r

In these drawings, the base of a threeunit shingle is represented by the reference character 8. This base is of rectangular form and will be seen to have cut-outs 9 on no one edge, these cut-outsbeing formed for the. purpose of giving the element the appear ance of three separate shingles when the multiple unit elements are-laid in courses on the roof. The base is made of molded and com ressed' cork, either with or'without a' pose for which it is to be used.

These bases, molded or otherwise formed to the proper size and shape, are next given a protective metallic coating and this coating is limited preferably, for reasons of economy, to that portion of the surface which is exposed when the elements are laid. In Fig. 1 there is shown a threeelement-shingle which has a pair of cut outs 9 with the edges at the ends of the elementalso slightly recessed as at 10,-so that when two elements are laid side by side a cut-out is formed in their abutting edges. When two courses have been laid in place the cutouts in the overlying course will expose ortions of the elements in the course next eneath. It is, therefore, necessary,

' in order that all portions of the base should be protected, to give the protective coating the somewhat irregular form illustrated in Fig. 1, the tongues 11, 11., extending. from the main body of the coating'so as to under lie the cut-outs of the shingles to be laid in the course next above and thus insure that all portions of the element which are ex- 'osed may be protected by a metal coating. t will be noted also that the 'edges of the element alongthe portion to be exposed are beveled as shown at 12, this bevclbeing so formed that the coating will cover the edges of the element completely.

The'metallic coating 13 is made of owdered metal, preferably a non-corro ible metal, such as'co per orzinc. This powdered metal m'a'y e blown or otherwise a plied in a dry form to the surface of t e ass, a suitable adhesive having first been applied thereto, but I prefer to use for this purpose a suspension of the powdered material in a binding vehicle such as nitrated cellulose. This suspension may be easily applied to the surface of the base so as to give a uniform coating thereto, and it may be applied also in such a way as to cover only those portions of the base where it is required. As a specific example of'the propor- I tlons of binding material. and metal to be used, and also of the quantities required to ap ly a film of satisfactory thickness, the fol owing is given by way of example:

A quantity of finely divided co per, rangtions that between one and two ounces of metal are deposited upon each square foot of the material to be treated. The-mixture of powdered copper and the binding vehicle .will be applied to all portions of .the base which are exposed when the-latter is laid in position on the roof. The metal, therefore, will not only cover the weather surface, but will also cover the'beveled portions of the .face of the base, preferably in such propor- I edges of the element and also the tongues 11'.

After the powdered metal has been-applied in the manner above described the element is allowed to dry until the binding vehicle sets and then the element may be used without further treatment, or else if desired, the metal may be givena surface treatment, as

for instance by burnishing or by chemical treatment so as to alter the color of the metal. This latter method of treatment is particularly applicable when copper has been used as the protective metal. The coloring of the copper particles is carried on by various methods which are well-known and the copper may be given several different colors which may be desirable in the particular 10- cation where the material is to be employed.

The method of manufacturing the single.

unit shingle illustrated in Fig. 4 is similar to the method above described. This element is of a size corresponding substantially to that of the usual wood shingle and has a, metal surface 14 applied over that portion of its face which will be exposed when the shingle is laid in place. The exposed edges of this portion of the shingle are bevelcdas indicated at 15, and also cut away at'16 so that when two shingles are laid side by side the rear ortions 17 of their lateral margins will he close together, while the cut-outs 16 of the adjacent shingles. will'cooperate to give the pair of shingles the appearance of being separated as is usual in a wooden shingled roof. Themetal coating also has a rearwardly projecting tongue 18 which underlies the cut-out portions of a pair of shingles of the'course next above.

In Fi 5 the base 8 is shown in somewhat enlarged size and it will be noted that this base along the outer surface 19 has a somewhat irregular appearance, the fine irregularities occurring during the manufacture of the base. .These irregularities-would ordinarily be considered a detriment in a plaincomposition base but in the case of the composite roofing element under discussion the irregularities serve a useful purpose and no attemptls'made to remove them from the hic base surface. On the contrary, the applica-.

tion of the metal over these irregularities not only serves to give the metallic surface a slightly roughened appearance so that ithas a texture, but the particles of metal en ter into the many small depressions in the surface of the base and are thus held'firmly n being more satisfactoryin' the case of a slightly roughened surface than is true in connectionwith a base which has been-in-Q tentiona-lly given a smooth surface.

While the roofing. element which has been .above described consisting of a base made of cork and having asurface formedof Inetallic particlesbound to the cork. 1s satisfactory for many purposes, it may be desir-.

able in some instances to applyla thicker coating of metal, and this may be readily done by using the element above described as'acathode in an electrolytic tank and then depositinga further thickness of the metal electrolytically upon the powdered metal,

this outer'layer 0 metal applied by electro- -deposition consisting of a multiplicityoffine particles united molecular-ly to form' a sub- For this uruse of a ase stantiall continuous coatin pose it is preferable to ma -uponzthe surface of which the powdered metal has been applied in the dry form that is, the'base should first be treated with an adhesive and the powdered metal blown or of the metal to be deposited. It is prefer-- able, though not essential, to-use the same metal in the outer coating-:that is used-in the first application of the base, and the metal electrodeposited will be plat edupon the particles and thus the entire coating will be bound firmly to the surface ofthe base. Such an element is illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7 in which it will be seen that the first coating 13 conforms closely to the surface irregw larities and that the outervcoating 20 deposited thereover also has an irregular surface. although the lesser irregularities of the coating 13 are now somewhat. smoothed off.

-. However, the outer layer still has the'rougltened appearance usually preferable to the smooth surface whichis normally present in the case of plain sheet metal roofing.

1place, the adherence of the binding ve While I have described'themanufacture of the roofin as being carried on by the treatment of e ements in the form in which they are finally to be used, it will be clear that it is possible to make use of standard sizes of base blanks, apply the metal to these blanks, and thereafter cut them to the desired sha e and form. Also it is not essential that t e base should be formed as a flat slab but it' may be given the curved formation of'an English tile. I In fact, it is possible to pro duce roofing elements in any of the various irregular sizes and shapes, such as are commonly used at thepresent time.

The choice of metals that may be applied according to this inventionis unrestricted but" the selection of the metal will depend on'the purpose for which the roofing is to be employed, and will also depend on the cost of the finished product. In general, copper, zinc, aluminum, or various-bronzes are the metals which will have the widest application, and the weight of the metal will vary between one and two ounces per square foot, although this will depend on the ultimate use of 'theelement and also onthe kind of metal. For instance, if aluminum is em-- ployed a reduced weight of this material will form a metallized surface' of the desired thickness. In the preferred embodiment of.

the invention nitrated cellulose is emplo ed as the suspension medium, but many at er materials such as drying. oils, for example, may also be made use of.

I claim: 1. A roofing element which comprises a [substantially rigid bodv of compressed cork particles bound together by the adhesive resinous constituents thereof, and a layer of finely divided metallic particles adhesively afiixed to the'surface of the body.

2'. A roofing element which comprises a substantially rigid body of compressed cork particles bound 1.together by the adhesive resmous constituents thereof, a coating' of an adhesiveover the body, and a layer of finely divided metallie' p'articles over the coating. 3; Aroofing element which comprises a substantially rigid body of compressed cork I particles bound together by the adhesive resinous constituents thereof, a coating of an adhesive overthe body, a layer of finely divided metallic particles over the coating, and a substantially continuous layer of mo-.

leeularly united metallic particles over the first layer. i

. In testimony whereof I afiix my si nature.

THOMAS ROBIN ON. 

